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Resources and their analysis are essential to understand better companies’ internal and external dynamics and the weight each has in obtaining competitive advantages over the competition. This study aims to address the law and legal knowledge as a fundamental resource for companies to succeed in the markets to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Based upon a sample of 200 managers, a structural equation model was used to validate the hypotheses under study.

Results show awareness and managers’ perception of the importance of law as a resource and its advantages for companies and the dichotomy between recognising this importance and not using it consistently.

Knowing the scope of business law and its growing importance for companies and being academically aware of the inexistence of studies that analyse the law as an individualised resource for companies, this study has a crucial contribution to the interconnection of these two fields – business and law.

Os recursos e suas análises são essenciais para compreender melhor a dinâmica interna e externa das empresas e o peso que cada uma tem na obtenção de vantagens competitivas sobre a concorrência. Esta investigação aborda o direito e o conhecimento jurídico como recursos fundamentais para que as empresas tenham sucesso nos mercados para obter uma vantagem competitiva sustentada.

Com base numa amostra de 200 gestores, foi utilizado um modelo de equações estruturais (MEE) para validar as hipóteses em estudo.

Os resultados mostram a consciência e a percepção dos gestores sobre a importância do direito como recurso e suas vantagens para as empresas e a dicotomia entre reconhecer essa importância e não a usarem de forma consistente.

Conhecendo o âmbito do direito empresarial e a sua crescente importância para as empresas e, academicamente ciente da inexistência de estudos que analisem o direito como recurso individualizado para as empresas, este estudo tem um contributo crucial para a interligação destes dois campos – negócios e direito.

Los recursos y su análisis son fundamentales para comprender mejor la dinámica interna y externa de las empresas y el peso que cada una tiene en la obtención de ventajas competitivas frente a la competencia. Esta investigación aborda el derecho y el conocimiento jurídico como recursos fundamentales para que las empresas triunfen en los mercados y obtengan una ventaja competitiva sostenida.

Con base en una muestra de 200 gerentes, se utilizó un modelo de ecuaciónes estructurales (MEE) para validar las hipótesis en estudio.

Los resultados muestran la conciencia y percepción de los gerentes sobre la importancia del derecho como recurso y sus ventajas para las empresas y la dicotomía entre reconocer esta importancia y no usarla de manera consistente.

Conociendo el alcance del derecho empresarial y su creciente importancia para las empresas y, académicamente consciente de la falta de estudios que analicen el derecho como recurso individual para las empresas, este estudio tiene un aporte crucial para la interconexión de estos dos campos – negocios y derecho.

This study aims to obtain insights based on empirical evidence that identify the key drivers and obstacles that lead companies to (re)/enter markets and distinguish the different paths SMEs take. This also provides deeper insights into internationalisation, success, failure and the potential for the re-internationalisation of the SMEs.

The authors used a qualitative research methodology based on six case studies and with recourse to semi-structured interviews with the senior managers of exporting SMEs.

The results report that SMEs with major investments deployed in their internationalisation processes, through recourse to high levels of bank financing, in association with the COVID-19 pandemic period, were not able to successfully overcome the process of internationalisation and culminating in their own bankruptcies.

This study shows how, despite such failures, the attractiveness and reputation of the brand, supported by the strategic vision and perseverance of new investors (entrepreneurs), enabled the rebirth of the brands and opening the door to their re-entering international markets.

Este estudio pretende obtener perspectivas basadas en pruebas empíricas que identifiquen los motores y obstáculos clave que llevan a las empresas a (re)/entrar en los mercados y distinguir los distintos caminos que siguen las PYME. Asimismo, se profundiza en la internacionalización, el éxito, el fracaso y el potencial de reinternacionalización de las PYME.

Los autores utilizaron una metodología de investigación cualitativa basada en seis estudios de casos y con recurso a entrevistas semiestructuradas con altos directivos de PYME exportadoras.

Los resultados informan de que PYMEs con grandes inversiones desplegadas en sus procesos de internacionalización, a través del recurso a altos niveles de financiación bancaria, en asociación con el periodo de pandemia COVID-19, no fueron capaces de superar con éxito el proceso de internacionalización y culminaron en sus propias quiebras.

Este estudio muestra cómo, a pesar de tales fracasos, el atractivo y la reputación de la marca, apoyados por la visión estratégica y la perseverancia de los nuevos inversores (empresarios), permitieron el renacimiento de las marcas y abrieron la puerta a su reentrada en los mercados internacionales.

Este estudo procura obter insights com base em evidências empíricas que identifiquem os principais drivers e obstáculos que levam as empresas a (re)/entrar nos mercados e distinguir os diferentes caminhos percorridos pelas PME . Isso também fornece insights mais profundos sobre internacionalização, sucesso, fracasso e o potencial para a re-internacionalização das PMEs.

Os autores utilizaram uma metodologia de investigação qualitativa baseada em seis estudos de caso e com recurso a entrevistas semiestruturadas a quadros superiores de PME exportadoras.

Os resultados dão conta de que as PME com grandes investimentos efetuados nos seus processos de internacionalização, através do recurso a elevados níveis de financiamento bancário, em associação com o período de pandemia COVID-19, não conseguiram ultrapassar com sucesso o processo de internacionalização e culminando na sua própria falências.

Este estudo mostra como, apesar de tais falhas, a atratividade e a reputação da marca, apoiadas na visão estratégica e na perseverança de novos investidores (empreendedores), permitiram o renascimento das marcas e abriram as portas à sua reentrada nos mercados internacionais.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it aims at the identification and assessment of the commitments towards sustainable development (SD) communicated to all interested parties (stakeholders) by top management; and second, mapping the profile of the organisations which prominently communicate those commitments.

The research methodology was supported on the content analysis of the organisations’ statements (disclosed on the institutional website) that sustain the strategy and policies (organisational culture). A total of 540 certified Portuguese organisations in Quality, Environment and Occupational Health and Safety (QEOHS) comprised the sample.

According to this research, it is possible to identify three main commitments towards SD addressing customers (consumers), human resources (employees) and continuous improvement. Furthermore, results suggest that commitments towards customers and human resources fit properly into the theoretical assumptions of the stakeholder theory and, in turn, the commitment towards continuous improvement fits accurately into the assumptions of the “normative isomorphism” of the institutional theory. Moreover, the results pointed out the characteristics of Portuguese organisations (QEOHS) that prominently communicate commitments towards SD: large business volume, located in Lisbon or Setubal, fall within the public business sector, are members of the BCSD Portugal and publish annual reports on the institutional website.

Solely organisations operating in Portugal and simultaneously encompassing three certified management subsystems (against the clauses of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 standards) were considered throughout this study. So it is not possible to ascertain at which extent the conclusions are valid. However, although the statistical generalisation of the results may be precluded, there is not any peculiar reason preventing the analytical generalisation, namely, in organisations operating in countries with similar macro-characteristics of Portugal.

To the best of authors’ knowledge this is the first time that such a comprehensive, detailed and thorough analysis of the communicated commitments towards SD is carried out regardless the activity sector. The conclusions from this paper are useful both for practitioners and scholars. On one hand companies have now information on the more often communicated statements, while on the other hand academics and scholars will benefit from this research and hopefully be able to replicate it in other contexts.

The purpose of this study was to use relational vision as a theoretical support for an investigation of how operational competencies are developed from the interaction of shared relational resources in the supply chain and to verify how these competencies allow the resources to be able to function, unity, integration and direction.

This multihull study was based on semi-structured interviews with 13 representatives of four dyads from companies in the steel, automotive and industrial applications, pulp processing and manufacturing and application of flexible tubes.

The results indicate that information, knowledge and learning are significant constructs to influence the development of operational skills in the supply chain because they represent the ability of the company to promote skills to efficiently use resources and create a barrier to imitation.

There are limitations in the use of four companies from different industrial segments because it is possible to generalize the results. However, given the cross-sectional nature of the research, new studies may adopt a longitudinal approach to verify the evolution in the area of operations. Future studies may also expand the unit of analysis to understand the role of the relationship between the focus business and its strategic suppliers from the viewpoint of the suppliers. Thus, new research can be expanded to dyads, triads and business networks by investigating the various stages in the supply chain.

This study contributes to the literature and adds the dimension of relational operational skills, which is hitherto little explored in previous studies.

This study contributes to the literature in the area of operations management, in collaborative relationships between buyers and sellers, focusing on the relational view of competitiveness.

The growing importance of organizations and the role of collaboration, based on mutual benefits and grouping of skills, tend to increase the competitive benefits of companies operating in this context. The management of this type of arrangement becomes a challenge for researchers, reinforcing the originality of this study.

The present study seeks to answer the following research question: what is the profile of the academic production related to the interorganizational networks in the period between 2006 and 2016? Thus, this study aims to characterize the academic production about the subject interorganizational networks available in national journals with Concept “A” (Qualis Capes), in the period between 2006 and 2016.

This paper uses national journals with Concept “A” of the Qualis classification (2016) for journal selection. In total, 12 “A” concept journals were identified. However, it was decided to analyze ten of them. The procedures suggested by Crossan and Apaydin (2010) for conducting bibliometric studies were adopted. It has been identified that 77 articles were published in eight journals. The R 3.3.2 and R Studio 1.0.136 software were used. The IGRAPH 0.5.5-2 extension (package) was used to analyze graphs and co-authorship networks (Csárdi and Nepusz, 2006). This extension is able to manipulate networks with millions of vertices and edges and provides a series of functions to analyze the properties of social networks, such as subnetworks, intermediation, centrality, among other characteristics (Csárdi and Nepusz, 2006). Correspondence analysis (CA) was also performed. CA is a multivariate exploratory technique that converts a data matrix into a graphical representation, so that rows and columns are represented by points in a graph (Greenacre and Hastie, 1987). This extension is dedicated to the multivariate analysis of data and allows the manipulation of different types of variables (quantitative or categorical). In the present research, multiple CA (MCA) was applied – indicated when the elements are described as categorical variables (Lê et al., 2008). The characteristics considered for carrying out MCA were the “main term”, “research approach”, “type of research”, “constructs” and “research strategies”. By using the FactoMineR 1.34 extension, the hierarchical clustering on principal components (HCPC) function was used (Husson et al., 2007; Lê et al., 2008). This function allows creating clusters from the characteristics of the articles analyzed and highlights the justifications for the groupings created. The function allows forming as many clusters the researcher wishes, being of its attribution to analyze a division that best represents the characteristics of the data (Husson, Josse, and Pagès, 2010). Husson et al. (2010) suggest that an analysis should be performed from the hierarchical tree, thus the number of clusters can be defined considering the overall appearance (or shape) of the tree formed. At last, a word cloud was created using the Wordcloud 2.5 extension (Fellows, 2013). The noticed advantage of using this extension is that it does not separate the terms that form a keyword when generating the cloud. It has been used for the keywords of the 77 articles analyzed; however, it has been decided to keep those that presented frequency greater than or equal to two. By avoiding occasional terms, a more intelligible cloud was obtained.

The present study was not able to verify if the journals analyzed by Andrighi et al. (2011) have influenced others to publish on the subject, as suggested by the Bradford’s Law. The standard “success breeds success”, suggested by the Bradford’s Law, was not confirmed. The so-called nuclear zone (Brookes, 1969; Novaretti et al., 2015) is composed of the journals Brazilian Administration Review (BAR), Revista de Administração Contemporânea (RAC), Revista de Administração Pública (RAP) and Revista Brasileira de Gestão de Negócios (RBGN). The journal RAC stands out for having been the one that has increased its annual average of publication in relation to the theme, when compared with the findings of Andrighi et al. (2011). The journals BAR and RBGN stand out because they are in the nuclear zone, even though they were not considered in the work of Andrighi et al. (2011). It should be noted that all the analyzed journals have in common the fact of addressing the themes of management and administration and, more specifically, making room for the “competitiveness” and “cooperation” constructs. These constructs are related to the theme of networks and were the most recurrent in the articles analyzed. “Cooperation” (29), “competitiveness” (27), “knowledge” (12), “learning” (6) and “trust” (3) were the “constructs” used to compose the 77 articles analyzed. In turn, “network” (49), “alliance” (18) and “cluster” (9) were the “main term” most used in the articles. This implies that the topic of cooperation is more linked to a vision of strategy. As occurred in the research of Andrighi et al. (2011), the term “network” is the most recurrent; in addition, the growth of space obtained by the term “alliance” stands out. The terms “network” and “alliance” were the most used by the articles, being predominant in 87 per cent of the research. In the present research, the predominance of the term “network” may have occurred because its concept is broader and it is used in the literature in different ways, even in contradictory ways (Andrighi et al., 2011; Schommer, 2001). In turn, the term “alliance” may have been recurrent because it has a wide dispersion of published issues, such as governance structure, cooperation, knowledge transfer and trust (Lima and Campos Filho, 2009). By using the HCPC function of the FactoMineR extension, the articles were grouped according to their characteristics, and then three clusters were formed. By analyzing the generated results, it is assumed that the division into three clusters was the one that best represented the data. Cluster 1 is characterized by descriptive, quantitative, half documentary and half survey research studies, being “cluster” the main term. Cluster 2 is characterized by exploratory case studies with qualitative–quantitative analyzes. Cluster 3 is characterized by theoretical tests. The Zipf’s law points out that a small group of words occurs many times; however, when considering the most recurrent words Networks (9), Strategic Alliances (8), Cooperation (8), Interorganizational Networks (8) and Alliances (6) show that they were present in only about 10 per cent of the works. Lotka’s Law, which states that few authors publish much and many authors publish little, was not confirmed. The authors who presented the highest number of publications, T. Diana L. v. A. de Macedo-Soares (6); Jorge Renato Verschoore (6); Alsones Balestrin (5); Douglas Wegner (4); Humberto Elias Garcia Lopes (4), participated in less than 10 per cent of the works. Thus, the authorship was characterized by many researchers publishing few works, what can be an effect of the behavior of these authors, who prefer to publish in network. The centrality of the relations between the authors was analyzed and, in addition, the intermediation points of the network were identified. The present study also analyzed all the references used by the 77 articles that compose the study. The main author of each of the references used was identified. Among the 30 identified authors, Yin and Hair Jr. stand out for books related to fundamentals and research methodologies. Borgatti and Eisenhardt developed research on the topic of interorganizational networks and also created works for methodological foundations. Powell was the most frequently mentioned author (28) and had more different works referenced (9). Powell stands out for the production of articles published in periodicals, not books. Porter’s situation is the opposite. Most of the quotations made to the author come from his books, especially the work “Competitive strategy” (Porter, 1980). All authors identified are foreigners, with the exception of Balestrin. Marshall, Polanyi, Granovetter and Williamson are authors of works considered seminal, being them, respectively, “Principles of economics” (Marshall, 1890), “Personal knowledge: towards a post critical philosophy” (Polanyi, 1958) and “The strength of weak ties” (Granovetter, 1973) and “Markets and hierarchies, analysis and antitrust implications” (Williamson, 1975).

Like all research, it has limitations. The first one derives from the selection criteria of the periodicals to be analyzed. The cut referring to the journals of greater impact excludes most of the national articles. These studies may contain important contributions to the knowledge of the national publication profile. In addition, the choice to analyze the journals disregards other types of work, such as books, scientific events, dissertations and thesis and reports. The choice of articles published in journals is based on the fact that these are a “certified knowledge”, as the studies are peer-reviewed, and in the case of the Qualis “A” stratum, a review of exogenous quality is supposed on this production. Despite its flaws, this system can be considered reliable to evaluate scientific knowledge (Bedeian, 2004; Shugan, 2007). The analysis of the most recent articles may have been hampered by a temporal issue. In addition, the choice of keywords, a necessary step, leaves out other studies. Another limitation refers to the fact that the articles have been analyzed and classified by the authors, which presupposes the use of their value judgments, at least to some extent. Other limitations refer to the bibliometric techniques employed. The main authors referenced in the studies were demonstrated, that is, those authors who have been used as a theoretical reference for studies of interorganizational networks. However, the circumstances under which these citations occurred were not analyzed. For example, an author may be quoted to use the contribution of his/her study, to be criticized or just to be another reference in the text. The lack of this analysis can be considered a fragility of the study.

This text was started talking about the dispersion of the studies on networks in the country. Previous work has been used, theoretically and empirically demonstrating this fact. Zipf’s Law applied to bibliometrics, as described by Guedes and Borschiver (2005), Novaretti et al. (2015) and Pao (1978), was not confirmed in this study, which seems to be an indicative fact that the research on this theme in Brazil presents fragmentation as an intrinsic characteristic. That is, it must remain fragmented, as this would be its own way to evolve. This is evident especially when comparing the study of Andrighi et al. (2011) and its results. With several but continuous temporal cut-outs, and the same keywords, the maintenance of this dispersion is evident. This is also a contribution of this study.

The study contributed to updating the research profile, mainly after the triennium 2013-2015 of Qualis Capes’ evaluations. It also added to the mapping of recent Brazilian academic production related to interorganizational networks, completing studies by Alves et al. (2013), Andrighi et al. (2011), Balestrin et al. (2010), Cunha and Carrieri (2003) and Mascena et al. (2013). Thus, it is believed that the research reached the proposed objectives, despite its limitations.

The present research is also justified by helping to understand the subject being useful for researchers, educators and students, in general, in the task of demonstrating gaps and opportunities of future researches and collaborating with the elaboration of a research agenda (Baumgartner and Pieters, 2003). The work has updated bibliometrics on the subject and allows comparisons with previous bibliometric studies (Alves et al., 2013; Andrighi et al., 2011; Balestrin et al., 2010; Cunha and Carrieri, 2003; Ferreira et al., 2014; Lima and Campos Filho, 2009; Mascena et al., 2013). It is believed that the present study differs from the others because of the analysis performed, the way the data were treated, with techniques that are rarely used simultaneously, going beyond the descriptive statistics.

The purpose of this study is to verify whether managers’ strategic orientation influences decision-making related to differentiation and whether these two factors impact on the performance of the firms in the Brazilian wine industry.

A survey was conducted with representatives from 123 wineries located in the following Brazilian states: 78.86 per cent in Rio Grande do Sul; 13.01 per cent in Santa Catarina; 2.44 per cent in Paraná; 2.44 per cent in São Paulo; 1.63 per cent in Bahia; and 1.63 per cent in Pernambuco. The data were analyzed using multivariate statistical techniques, resulting in a structural equations model of the constructs.

The research findings show that there is a positive association between prospector orientation and differentiation. Analyst positioning was negatively associated with differentiation of winery companies. It was also possible to show that differentiation has a positive relationship with performance.

While a previous study attempted to identify wineries’ strategic orientation using other theoretical constructs, this study makes a contribution to consolidating reflections on strategic orientation focused on differentiation and performance. The results contribute to expanding the scientific debate by filling a gap in existing theory and also provide information of use to decision-makers, demonstrating, which approaches improve differentiation, and hence, performance.

The purpose of this paper is to identify organizational and industrial characteristics of publicly traded Brazilian firms with sport and cultural sponsorships.

Secondary data, as organization variables and industry level variables, were sourced from Economatica®. The data were analyzed using logistic regression.

Both size and asset profitability were associated with a sponsorship strategy. Both industry concentration and company size are positively related to both cultural and sport sponsorship strategies.

The findings in this paper provide support to resource-based view and SPC theories. The notable limitation of the study is the reliance on non-standardized social reporting.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study the importance for sponsorship to companies’ performance. The adoption of sponsorship strategies has been growing in Brazil and becoming more and more important for sponsor companies’ performance and in developing these industries, sport and creative. Through culture and sports, companies try to add value to their brands, delivering a socially responsible image to the audience.

This paper aims to map the creation and evolution of centering resonance analysis (CRA). This method was an innovative approach developed to conduct textual content analysis in a semi-automatic, theory-informed and analytically rigorous way. Nevertheless, despite its robust procedures to analyze documents and interviews, CRA is still broadly unknown and scarcely used in management research.

To track CRA’s development, the roadmapping approach was properly adapted. The traditional time-based multi-layered map format was customized to depict, graphically, the results obtained from a systematic literature review of the main CRA publications.

In total, 19 papers were reviewed, from the method’s introduction in 2002 to its last tracked methodological development. In all, 26 types of CRA analysis were identified and grouped in five categories. The most innovative procedures in each group were discussed and exemplified. Finally, a CRA methodological roadmap was presented, including a layered typology of the publications, in terms of their focus and innovativeness; the number of analysis conducted in each publication; references for further CRA development; a segmentation and description of the main publication periods; main turning points; citation-based relationships; and four possible future scenarios for CRA as a method.

This paper offers a unique and comprehensive review of CRA’s development, favoring its broader use in management research. In addition, it develops an adapted version of the roadmapping approach, customized for mapping methodological innovations over time.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the innovation strategies of the sugar–energy industry in Central-Southern Brazil with regard to its resource structure and results.

The data were collected through a questionnaire covering the three-year period from 2015 through 2017. The results were extracted based on a combination of factor analysis and multiple regression analysis.

The innovation strategies of Brazilian sugar–energy companies are characterized as defensive and imitative based on the resources dedicated to innovation and the implementation of innovation with respect to products, processes, eco-innovation and cost reductions.

The sample is representative, but it does not cover all companies in the Brazilian sugar–energy industry. The data were acquired using a survey, and the results could not be compared to the financial results of the companies.

Sugar–energy companies need to define their innovation strategies, as these strategies lead to different results that can be achieved only through the management of resources dedicated to the generation and implementation of innovations. Managers and analysts need to know the profile of these innovation strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of the results based on the resources that were invested.

This study presents an exploratory model that identified two factors related to innovation efforts and three results. It is possible to define the innovation strategies of companies in the Brazilian sugar–energy industry, which is one of the most competitive in Brazil.